Game 1: Montreal Canadiens @ Toronto Maple Leafs
Start time: 7:00 PM EDT / 4:00 PM PDT
In Canada: Sportsnet (English), TVA Sports (French)
Streaming: ESPN+, Sportsnet+
I dream
— Ken Dryden, The Game
I imagine
I feel hard and deep
I hope, because there’s always a way.
There’s light at the end of the tunnel.
The 2024-25 Montreal Canadiens weren’t supposed to make the playoffs. Despite a professed desire to be “in the mix,” the post-season was still a goal, an aspiration, not an expectation.
Yet by late April, the script had flipped on its head. With an eight-point advantage in hand following a 4-1 victory over the Detroit Red Wings, the playoffs felt assured. and missing out would have been regarded as a step back, a squandered opportunity. When the Canadiens finally did clinch in game 82, the faithful let out more of a sigh of relief.
The roar of triumph, after all, could wait until April 25.
In hindsight, the fact that the Canadiens backed into the post-season probably encouraged Kent Hughes and the Habs’ braintrust to be more aggressive during the off-season. By now, the entry draft trade had become a Hughes trademark, but Montreal’s general manager made the biggest move of his tenure thus far in acquiring Noah Dobson for Emil Heineman and two first-round selections. Dobson’s acquisition was arguably the first time a Canadiens general manager had spent futures for a well-established commodity at the height of his powers since Marc Bergevin traded for Thomas Vanek in 2014. It was a shot across the bow, a declaration that the Canadiens were on course for contention.
It was also a vote of confidence for the players who got them there. Hughes’s willingness to ante up for Dobson indicated a belief that the current group of players was capable of replicating its successes and going on toward greater things. The general manager’s fate is now tied to the core that he has moulded: Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, Juraj Slafkovský. Kaiden Guhle, Lane Hutson. Ivan Demidov.
More than that, aside from the departures of Heineman, Christian Dvorak, and Joel Armia, Hughes is running the roster back in 2025-26, The Canadiens return with a healthier Kirby Dach and Patrik Laine, a renewed Brendan Gallagher and Josh Anderson, better established roles for Mike Matheson, Jake Evans, Alexandre Carrier, and Alex Newhook, and continued cautious optimism for Jayden Struble and Arber Xhekaj.
The fact that Hughes would fire a second salvo mere days later, exchanging Logan Mailloux for Zachary Bolduc, merely confirmed and reinforced how much the front office believes in the roster before them.
Ironically, after the energy of the off-season, training camp proved to be rather mundane. For all of the talk about a prospect breaking through and forcing management’s hand, none were able to accomplish the feat, with honourable mentions to Adam Engström and Florian Xhekaj. Instead, the two open roster spots went to the two most experienced and established players on the bubble: journeyman NHLer Joe Veleno and Oliver Kapanen, who, one must be reminded, was on the squad to start and finish last season (albeit under very different circumstances).
| Canadiens | Statistics (24-25) | Maple Leafs |
|---|---|---|
| 40-31-11 | Record | 52-26-4 |
| 47.0% (28th) | Scoring-chances-for % | 48.5% (23rd) |
| 2.96 (17th) | Goals per game | 3.26 (7th) |
| 3.18 (22nd) | Goals against per game | 2.79 (8th) |
| 20.1% (21st) | PP% | 24.8% (9th) |
| 80.9% (9th) | PK% | 77.9% (17th) |
| 1-2-1 | Head-to-Head Record | 3-1-0 |
| Cole Caufield (37) | Most goals | William Nylander (45) |
| Lane Hutson (60) | Most assists | Mitch Marner (75) |
| Nick Suzuki (89) | Most points | Mitch Marner (102) |
For the Montreal Canadiens, 2025-26 is a continuation of 2024-25. For the Toronto Maple Leafs, it is year three of their internal restructuring. The Leafs have made a habit of making one major personnel shift per off-season: general manager Brad Treliving replacing Kyle Dubas in 2023-24, head coach Craig Berube replacing Sheldon Keefe in 2024-25, and [player yet to be determined] replacing Mitch Marner in 2025-26.
While these moves made splashy headlines, the Leafs’ overall progression over this period has been much more subtle. Toronto has sought incremental gains by tinkering with the supporting cast since the original inception of the “Core 4,” and this off-season was no exception. Nicolas Roy and Dakota Joshua are in, replacing Max Pacioretty and Pontus Holmberg. Mattias Maccelli takes Marner’s spot in the top six, while Jacob Quillan and recent waiver-wire acquisition Sammy Blais are preferred to top prospect Easton Cowan. The Leafs will hope that Bobby McMann continues his upward trajectory, and that Nick Robertson will show something that justifies his place on the roster.
For all this, the team still relies on a quartet of star forwards, split two-to-a-line, and a single defenceman for the bulk of their offence. The “Core 4” moniker may have to be retired, but Auston Matthews, John Tavares, William Nylander, Matthew Knies, and Morgan Rielly are still here, just as they were when the Canadiens visited Scotiabank Arena on October 11, 2023. It remains to be seen whether Knies can be a legitimate successor to Marner, or will serve as the Andy Murray to Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djoković.
Defensively, Toronto is able to trot out the same defencemen who donned the blue and white during last season’s playoffs. Chris Tanev and Jake McCabe serve as the linchpins of the blue line, while Oliver Ekman-Larsson and the aforementioned Rielly offer mobility and transition. Brandon Carlo, Simon Benoit, and Philippe Myers round out the septet. Between the pipes, Anthony Stolarz will look to pick up where he left off and become Toronto’s bona fide number one. With Joseph Woll unavailable, Treliving plucked yet another former Hab off the waiver wire; Cayden Primeau will back up on Wednesday night.
The Canadiens have opened their campaign against the Maple Leafs each season since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite Montreal’s oscillating fortunes and Toronto’s near decade-long run of competitiveness, these matchups have been relatively close: the Leafs hold a 3-2 edge, but every game has been decided by a single goal. Success against the Maple Leafs beyond the first game of the season has been harder to come by for the Canadiens: Montreal has a 4-12-2 combined record against Toronto in non-season-openers over the last five seasons.
A win in the shadow of the CN Tower would be a great first step to reversing that trend — to reversing many of the trends of the rebuild. To bring Montreal out of the realm of what could be and into the realm of what is.
